May 29, 2011

Pssst...don't tell the kids...but I think school is out. Of course, this is the beauty of homeschooling and we all know the learning just keeps on happening day and night all year through. But, the plans I had to finish up a couple last things before we called it summer? umm... forget it. It feels like summer now. So I think we'll just go with that. (A few more photos of our summer kick off week-end here.)

January 01, 2011

We spent our New Year's Eve playing a mad game of monopoly. Nick (at age 5!) nearly won and had an impressive strategy for preventing Mama from owning all four railroads (but I won anyway!).

Over Thai food and chocolate fondue, we reviewed the goals we set as a family for 2010 on last New Year's Eve and discovered that there was still time to accomplish one fun thing we had not yet got around to doing.

Alexa looking up at a beautiful New Year's Eve winter sky.

Nick lighting the way for the lantern walk.

We pulled on our snow boots, threw our coats over our pajamas and grabbed the nearest lantern to take a little lantern walk through our back yard trail. The snow was still frozen enough to hold our weight with (almost!) every step as we crunched our way through the woods and the crisp, clear winter night air with lots of giggles and a little bit of magical moonlight to end a very busy, very good year.

Then it was back inside to make a new list of all the fun and exciting things we want to do in 2011.

A sample of the fun ahead:

*Nick-Learn to read, lose a tooth and ride my bike without training wheels (wow! a big year for my littlest one)

*Alexa- Practice piano and recorder with my Mama or maybe another teacher (hmm...) and finish all the books I started reading in 2010 (a lor!)

*Mama- knit (and complete) 10 new things (a big goal seeing as I think I completed two things in 2010!) and finally learn to use my sewing maching (I am motivated because I can't seem to find table linens that I really love).

*Papa- Brew all grain (we'll keep you posted on that one, Papa's big goal for 2010 was to start brewing beer and he got in about seven batches before year's end).

Here's hoping you also had a wonderful and magical New Year's celebration and that 2011 is full of joy, hope and peace for us all.

December 16, 2010

And now for something completely different....we decided to switch gears a bit from all the usual Christmas cooking of yummy edible treats and cook up yummy smeliing bodycare gifts this year. Inspired in part by this awesome and easy recipe for Peppermint Lip Balm from Amanda Soule of Soule Mama, we also concocted a few more potions of our own including Peppermint Bath Salts and Vanilla Coconut Sugar Scrub. Yum! The house smells so good and I didn't have to monitor anyone's sugar consumption while making the gifts!

The recipes were incredibly simple. We just made them up after being inspired by many different recipes we came across while browsing lots of different sources online.

December 12, 2010

One of my favorite little Christmas moments is unpacking this gingerbread angel each year. I've had her since 1968. My parents gave her to me to celebrate my first Christmas when I was three weeks old. The kids think it is so amazing that she has survived so long without damage that they insist I "put her up high" on the tree each year so nothing happens to her! More pictures from the first couple weeks of our Christmas celebrations are on our Flickr page here. I hope you are enjoying every moment of the season!

September 14, 2010

This just suddenly appeared on the homeschool table today. I am not sure if there is any particular incident (or just ongoing family conversations) that led to this but... I think I like it! We are "back to homeschool" as of last Tuesday and I will have more to share on that soon but I couldn't resist posting this here right away. It made me smile.

March 09, 2010

And reclaim a corner of our dining room that had been given over to a small table and chair set for the last few years that, thanks to the homeschool room re-do (more on that later), has been passed along to smaller children. For now, the corner will host a little bit of whatever we are growing...